Festival Flashback: Looking Back to 2001 at the Sarajevo Film Festival

This year marks the 30th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival. SFF is the largest and most premier festival in Southeast Europe. The festival was launched during the siege of the Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.

The first Sarajevo Film Festival was held from 25 October to 5 November 1995. With the siege of Sarajevo still going on, attendance projections were very low. However, a surprising 15,000 people came to see the films, of which there were 37 from 15 different countries. The festival grew at a remarkable pace, and now attracts more than 100,000 people annually on all programs and screening hundreds of films from 60 countries.

In 2001 the winner of the Best Feature was Danis Tanovic’s ‘No Man’s Land’, which also took home the Audience Award. Later the film went on to win the Best Foreign Language Oscar. His current film, ‘My Late Summer’ opened this years’ edition and he has attended the festival many times in between.

Also in 2001, the European Film Association made the Sarajevo Film Festival one of the eleven festivals that could nominate a film for the award of “Europe’s Best Short Film”.

We look back at winners from Sarajevo 2001

Best Feature

No Man’s Land
Directed by Danis Tanovic

Beast First Feature – Honorable Mentions

19
Directed by Kazushi Watanabe

A Time for Drunken Horses
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi

Audience Award

No Man’s Land
Directed by Danis Tanovic

Prix UIP Sarajevo (European Short Film)

Copy Shop
Directed by Virgil Widrich

Prix UIP Sarajevo (European Short Film) – Special Mention
Monsieur William, les traces d’une vie possible
Direct by Denis Gaubert